Off-Day Outtakes: Wilco

01 A Shot In The Arm02 We're Just Friends03 I'm Always In Love04 Candyfloss05 How To Fight Loneliness06 Tried And True07 She's A Jar08 Pieholden Suit09 Nothingsevergonnagetinmywayagain10 Via Chicago11 ELT12 My Darling13 In A Future Age

Zenslinger left a Wilco comment under another post which I agree with. Maybe he'll re-post it here later.

After AM, which I loved, Being There was a bit too draggy and spacey and slow, and I balked. And for whatever reasons, I never bothered checking them out after that, even as YFT was hailed as a masterpiece and AGIB followed.

I figured it was all in the same musical direction. Turns out I was dead wrong. Summerteeth has hard Beatlesy pop and I like a lot of the Yankee demos.

I'm still more of a Son Volt man, but have to give Tweedy another listen or four.

No Volt demos as far I know right now. Tomorrow, I may discover something .... !

Thanks for this.While in my Sunday morning coffee spot - Krankie's, in the downtown art district here, a couple of weeks ago, the girls had a great CD on with a good hook. I asked and they said itwas Wilco. The one thought it was thir newest and the other thought it was an album or 2 before. Either way it made me want to seek out some more. Haven't found it at the used music store yet, but now I have an idea of what to look for.

I admire Wilco, but don't always enjoy their more adventurous stuff. I have some bands I like with lots of atonal stuff and feedback whines and all that, but I know when I'm in the mood for it.

Maybe I'm getting old. But I do like their more accessible songs.

/End Original Post

My takeaway from these posts about their most recent stuff is that they haven't continued the feedback experiment. If so, I'm heartened. Again, the feedback thing is good, just a little tough to listen to. My feeling about that era was cemented when I saw them open for REM in a big summer "shed" venue - totally wrong for Wilco, especially during the feedback sections. Seeing them do that headlining in a theater would have been much, much better.

Wilco's such a deeply personal band for me; they're very intrinsically linked to an important person in my life. As such, it's painful for me to listen to a lot of their stuff, even though most of it is quite good (I give Being There the nod over AM and Summerteeth, mainly because "Misunderstood" is a stone cold classic). That being said, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an album I'll never get sick of, not after 10,000 listens. It's kind of a bummer "Jesus, Etc." wasn't in the demos - IMO, that's their greatest song.

I got to see them live during the tour that produced Kicking Television - the extra band members really helped flesh out the songs live. They're such a tremendous onstage band.

Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt I find a lot more hit or miss - I guess because alt-country isn't entirely my cup of tea. They both have some great songs, though - "The Long Cut", "Windfall", some others.